space elevators, strange just had this same argument with a mate! from just typing it into google every link seems to say 15 years , bar one which said under 50!

The most popular and financed idea is here:
http://www.isr.us/SEHome.aspIf myou are a doubter then just download the video animation here and read the info'! sounds wacky but there you go. Maybe a good time to quote the movie "contact
wasnt is crazy that people said the earth was flat or that people could fly in the sky like birds"
Rob

Put simply, geostationary orbit is the height required to fall towards earth but stay at the same height (definition of orbit) while simultaneously doing this above one point on the earth's surface. By physics, this height is relatively quite high compared to other orbits that don't follow a single point, or it is further out if you want to look at it that way. This must be on the equatorial plane or near it as well.

Annoyingly the official abbreviation of geostationary orbit is GSO but to me this also suggests geosynchronous orbit, oh well!

And with half-a-billion dollars (which is 1/180th of the fortune of the world's richest man), you could easily haul up a pre-fab moonbase, and the vehicles and fuel to get it there with, say, a Sea Dragon. Hell, with a Sea Dragon, you could have the material in orbit for a space station too... just recycle the skin, structure and fuel tanks.